The government expects to announce a simplification of reporting requirements for small industries in the near future, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said today.

He said the representatives of SMEs in the pre-Budget talks had called for a simplification of laws, procedures and reporting requirements for SMEs, including tariffs paid to regulators, and these had been included in the pre-Budget document.

“On some of these areas, such as the simplification of reporting requirements, the process is in an advanced stage and in the near future we will be able to announce simpler standards in this regard,” Mr Fenech said.

He made his comments during a national conference on SMEs being held this morning as part of the Budget consultation process.

The minister said the government gave a lot of importance to SMEs because they were at the heart of the economy, employing 67,000 people with the potential of employing many more.

He said that in the past three years, SMEs were granted €38 million in direct assistance including cash grants, investment allowances, investment incentive schemes and reduced income tax. Malta Enterprise had provided premises to 80 companies.

The sector was also benefiting from other measures announced in the budgets of the past two years, including the measure where salaries given to family members were recognised for tax purposes.

The outcome of such measures had been positive, ,with 7,000 new SMEs being set up in just the past two years, Mr Fenech said.